Day 20 in Riga

Yes, that is how long we have been here now. It's been a long journey to get here and now a long time spent here. The good news is that we only have 8 more days until we can come home so we are trying to put aside the homesickness and enjoy what is left.

Yesterday we went with another family that is here adopting to St Peters Cathedral and rode the elevator up to the top of the tower where you can step out and see all around Riga. It was beautiful.









Then on our walk back to catch the bus we noticed something going on at the Freedom Monument. There were soldiers standing at attention and their military band was ready to play too so we asked and found out that yesterday was the anniversary of Latvia and Estonia's freedom and both presidents were coming. So we stayed and watched as the cavalcade pulled in and the soldiers marched up to the presidents and gave them both a beautiful wreath which they layed at the freedom monument. It was really a neat thing to witness. I mean I've never even seen our president in person and here I saw the president of two different countries. It was cool. Danny even took a little video clip of it which I'm posting below.

We then invited the other family back to the apartment to have dinner with us and let the kids watch Rio. It was nice to spend time with someone else over here that we can talk to and relate to what we are going through.

As for Vica, truly I have nothing but wonderful things to say. She is mild mannered, she likes helping out, she has been great with the 4 year old twins we've been hanging out with, she jokes with us and has a great sense of humor and she likes to give hugs and tell us she loves us. And she is your typical teen who is attached to her phone and can go through some credits from texting in no time flat :) But, when we tell her it's time to put the phone up she is so good at listening and not giving attitude. I realize that things may change some when we get home but all in all I think we are going to have it pretty easy with her.